B.C. and the Bible: The Biblical Depiction of Satan


Following are the principal Bible verses about Satan:

Fall of the Rebel Angels

Here we have Milton's Satan, who rose up against God, and who uttered:

To reign is worth ambition though in hell: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.

What is interesting is that in Revelations, the implication is that Satan has been banished to Earth, while Isaiah talks about Lucifer being banished to hell, aka the pit. Maybe Earth is hell? Perhaps the discrepency can be explained by questioning whether or not Satan and Lucifer are the same being.

Interesting, also, that Satan is not identified as the serpent in eden until Revelations 12:9 (end of the first century AD?) This is interesting, though: Richard Marshall says that a Jewish text called The Life of Adam and Eve dating from the first century BC identifies the serpent of eden with Samael, the angel who rebels when God orders the heavenly host to worship Adam. Samael says that "he will build a throne above the stars and proclaim himself the highest of all beings. His angels rally round in agreement, and the Archangel promptly throws them all out of heaven and down into a deep dark dungeon." Also, I haven't much information here, but the second book of Enoch (from the apocrypha?), also from the 1st century BC, refers to this incident and refers to the fallen angels as "the Watchers". This sounds like the story of Satan.

Ovid's Lucifer

In a letter to Green Egg, Anthony Gresham cites the following passages from Ovid's Metamorphosis, in which Lucifer appears as a minor deity: god of the morning Star.2

The references to Lucifer in Ovid suggest that the name predates Early Christianity and certainly the KJV translation of the Bible. At what point did this minor Roman deity become associated with the Christian devil?


1 Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. pp. 46-47.

2 "Green Egg Forum". Green Egg. p.65.


Copyright © 1996, 1997 by B.C. Holmes. Last updated: February 11th, 1997

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